Second International Archives

Period  1889-1922
Total size   0.65 m.
Consultation Not restricted

History

Founded in 1889 as a loose, international confederation of autonomous socialist political parties and trade union organizations, which met as International Socialist Congresses; had no permanent organization until the International Socialist Bureau was established as a coordinating body in 1900; after the anarchists were excluded in 1896, by committing the member parties to parliamentary political action, the Second International united all sorts of social democrats, from reformist to revolutionary, with Marxist influence prevailing in its programmatic statements; having a high profile as a peace preserving factor by its prewar declarations, the Second International collapsed when member parties in the belligerent countries sided with their governments in 1914; roughly parallel with the prewar internal left-center-right division the wartime split was formalized with the foundation of the Communist International (COMINTERN) in 1919 and the International Working Union of Socialist Parties (IWUSP) in 1921 alongside the remnants of the Second International, which was reorganized as Labour and Socialist International, London Secretariat 1921-1923.

Content

Collection of agenda, circulars, tickets of admission, reports, drafts of resolutions, statements and press clippings: on congresses and conferences 1889-1922; on the International Socialist Bureau 1899-1914, 1919-1921; on women's conferences 1907, 1910, 1915-1916.

Processing information

Inventory made by Atie van der Horst in 1980, 1982, 2009.

Alternate Form of Material

Security microfilms of inv.nos. 1-489.